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Friday, 18 May 2012

It is always lovely receiving a parcel in the mail. "What is in the parcel, and who is it from?" is the thought as you tear open the parcel.

And this is what came in the mail on Thursday -- from a lovely blogging friend, Tatyana. The bead fob was made by Tatyana, and a fat quarter of fabric with lovely wording--"create, influence, inspire, laugh, love, shine, appreciate, feel, imagine, dream"-- all the things that relate to a craft person. These were accompanied by a cutest little card with a picture of Major Mitchell Cockatoos on the front. THANK YOU , Tatyana.

It came all in time for my birthday today. Today I am having a lovely relaxing time and I don't even have to worry about cooking dinner. My daughter is organising that and my sister is bringing a cake. My son is away and will come home next week end, and I am being taken out for dinner then to my favourite restaurant called "Fratelli del Mare". My husband bought me a book called "South coast journey--- Victor Harbor to Barwon Heads"as he knows I would love to do the Great Ocean Rd trip. I am hoping that that is a hint as to where we will be going for our next holiday.
Have a lovely weekend.

Saturday, 12 May 2012

We have just come home from a lovely holiday in Victoria. We were in Melbourne, then stayed in Birregurra, Creswick, Echuca and Beechworth. As you can see, we stayed mainly in the smaller towns. The countryside was varied -- from beautiful undulating country to flat plains around Echuca, back to lovely undulating countryside again around Beechworth with the Great Dividing Range as a backdrop.

Heatherington Cottage near Creswick. It is on a Poll Hereford stud and the bull was in the paddock right next to the house

I loved the change in the Eucalyptus trees-- each area having their own variety of trees.I was surprised to see rainforests down in the Otways.Tiny little scrub wrens were rummaging on the forest floor. The Murray River Gums were beautiful, and the iron bark trees were majestic.The autumn colours especially in Beechworth and Bright were fantastic. I wished I had more knowledge of the trees we saw along our way-- I have been trying to google them to get the names and varieties. Will look out for a book on native trees of Australia to learn more about them.

Magestic gum trees in the Otways

Fungi growing on the dead wood

A paddle steamer on the Murray River

Autumn colours in Bright

A quilt on the wall of a house we stayed in in Beechworth

I love tiny birds and wrens were everywhere. We saw a flame robin and lots of finches. They are too difficult to photograph as they flit from one thing to the next.

Needless to say I came across a few patchwork shops along the way. I was being very sensible and trying not to buy much, as we were flying home and my suitcase was full as it was. ( Took too many clothes, as usual!). I had already bought a gorgeous Laura Ashley umbrella in Ballarat and that was already going to be part of my hand luggage. When we got to Albury, we had a couple of hours before our flight home, I came across a flyer for a shop called The Christmas Beetle, and it was close to where we were. Of course I had to find it. It had a tiny section of patchwork material, but they were mainly country colours-- my favourite. Of course I had to buy some and totally blew the budget, and had an extra bag of fabric to carry on the plane as well as my umbrella and backpack! I managed to get them all home without leaving anything behind somewhere.

Some of the country style fabrics bought in Albury.

I took the applique blocks from The SAL quilt that I am involved with, and had time to get some sewing done-- very pleased that I managed to do that.

Back to reality now and back to work and the old routine again tomorrow.